The encouraging degree of success that has
crowned the arduous and long-continued efforts of Mr. Fuller did not
come to him at a single bound nor indeed with any rapidity, but is the
result of years of strenuous exertion and intensity of industrious
application. Had he been less persevering he would have succumbed to
adverse fate. More than once he lost his all and was forced to start
anew. This, however, was not an uncommon experience among Californian
pioneers and whenever he "went broke" there were not wanting
sympathetic friends whose encouragement and words of cheer helped him to
begin once more with renewed energy and dauntless determination. As he
looks back over the busy past and reflects upon his present prosperous
condition he has every reason to rejoice that pluck and perseverance
never deserted him in days of adversity, but enabled him to achieve a
final and gratifying success as one of the farmers of his county.

Descended from old eastern ancestry and the son
of New England parents (Chase and Philena (Kneeland) Fuller), Charles E.
Fuller was born at South Boston, Mass., in 1837, and received a fair
education in local schools. From 1851 to 1853 he followed the sea and
made two trips to the West Indies. When still a mere lad news came to
him concerning the discovery of gold in California and for the first
time he began to be interested in the undeveloped west. Nor did that
interest wane in the ensuing epoch of early youth. It was not the desire
of his parents for him to go so far from them, but they reluctantly gave
their consent to his departure and at the age of sixteen years he bade
farewell to relatives and friends, embarking on a vessel bound for the
Isthmus of Panama. After crossing the isthmus he came up the Pacific
ocean to San Francisco. Soon after his arrival he secured work by the
month in Alameda county. After two years he invested his savings in a
threshing machine and during the next two years he engaged in the
threshing of grain. At the expiration of that time he bought a settlers'
claim to one hundred and sixty acres in what is Fruitvale, but a year
later he was obliged to relinquish the property because it proved to be
a part of an old grant.

Removing to Marin county early in the '60s and
taking up land, Mr. Fuller engaged in ranching there for two years,
after which he sold the property and came to Sonoma county. About 1870
he embarked in the saw-mill business near Occidental, but two years
later he bought land near Freestone, the one hundred and thirty acres
then secured forming the nucleus of his present estate. At a subsequent
period he worked in Mendocino county, bur returned without means, to
make a new start in Sonoma county. Here he erected a saw-mill for M. C.
Meeker, and later in the year he built another mill for the same party.
Then he started in the milling business for himself and from that time
he has met with encouraging success. After he purchased his
quarter-section of land in young manhood he married Elizabeth McKinly,
who died in 1893, leaving no children. On March 5, 1895, he was united
in marriage with Mrs. India M. (Overholser) Smith, who was born in
Indiana. Her parents, Abraham Whitmore and Hester Ann (Cullum)
Overholser, natives of Ohio, remained in Indiana for a considerable
period, but when she was five yers old they crossed the plains with oxen
and mules, in 1862, and settled in Sonoma county. Mrs. Fuller is
descended on the paternal and maternal sides respectively from German
and English ancestors. The only child of Mr. and Mrs. Fuller is Kneeland
Lewis, who was born February 24, 1897, and is now a pupil in the
Freestone schools.

In addition to the Walnut Hill ranch of one
hundred and thirty acres, Mr. Fuller owns a fine ranch of three hundred
and eighty-eight acres in the Colman valley, two and one-half miles from
Occidental. Twenty acres of the home place have been planted to apple
trees (Gravenstein, Spitzenberg, Wagner, Baldwin, Arkansas black, and
Virginia greenings) and of this tract ten acres in full bearing bring an
annual income of more than $2000. He also owns thirty acres of the old
Fair grant, making his total holdings five hundred and forty-eight
acres. Three years ago he started a walnut orchard that is now in fine
condition. In order that he may give his entire attention to the fruit
business he has sold his saw-mill property and is now in a position to
profitably develop his orchards. Horticulture always has been a genial
occupation to him and he is at his best when planning for his fruit,
caring for the trees and endeavoring to improve the quality of fruit
produced. The soil and climate seem well adapted to apple-culture and in
the opinion of experts this industry will claim an ever-increasing
attention from the progressive land-owners of the locality.

Source:History of Sonoma County, California
Biographical Sketches of The Leading Men and Women of the County Who
Have Been Identified With Its Growth and Development from the Early Days
to the Present
History By: Tom Gregory
Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, California (1911)